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That Moment of Truth

We all have those moments of truth. When you look at old pictures and realize how your siblings were babies. When you look through old clothes and realize you never got tired of wearing that favorite one which Mom secretly gave away. When you come across a song that's ten years outdated and every memory tied with it comes rushing back. When you read through school slam books and laugh your ass off on reading that your friends have Dum as their favorite movie. Or kept never ending fullstops in their crush list. And turn to the last page to see you've filled in details that are the the most hideous of them all!

Worst of them all - When you realize you're never going to fight over lunchboxes. You never knew the last time you donned on that uniform, that it would be the last time ever. When you realize the only reason you had the nerve to sing in public was because you thought anyone singing the backstreet Boys were cool anyhow. When it dawns on you that you're never going to be able to sleep every night after sharing the night's last word with the closest friends. When you recall secretly glancing at each other through an emotional movie to see who would inaugurate the tear sessions. Or be just one phone call away from having a girls' session. When you know that no matter how much technology shortens distance, you will never be able to have a sleepover without months of planning.

Truth is, I had a nonchalant attitude to anyone who said that school or college days once gone, are gone. Yeah right, I'd smirk - Life is going to be awesome, InshaAllah. Hell yeah, it is. But nobody ever told me that I'd miss being silenced by waiters at restaurants for bringing the house down. Or that I'd never be able to capture a thousand pics in just half a day's event. Wow, 18 years later, I know. And when I do tell my brothers the same, I see that they've taken after me just like any other kid. You never know the value of something unless you lose it.

For Good.

Chocolate Love.

I blame BSNL for ruining the continuity in my Bangkok Holiday posts. If it hadn't been for their wavering connection, I would have written 3 more posts. Yes, it's ALWAYS the government's fault!


Pretty much happened over the past few weeks. As can be seen, grew lazy. It all started with me quitting work to "focus" on designing. And I'm still waiting for THAT to happen! Leaving work has given me some time to get back to baking - Oh yes, I realized I never fell out of love with my oven. I'm definitely taking it with me should I happen to leave home.

Now that piece of cake is literally, umm a piece of cake in my childhood memory. My uncle would bake it and bring it home. The moment he'd leave, me and my sister would devour slice after slice of decadent chocolate goodness. Oh I could never stop talking about that cake. Only recently did Mom tell me it's called German Chocolate Cake and oh boy, it was one of those times I thanked Allah for Google!

Maybe I should become a baker. Or a pastry chef. Or maybe just a chef. I definitely want to become a teacher at some point. And get involved in charity. And become a traveller.

Masterchef Australia is baaaack with a bang!

This post reminds me of a time when I used to write letters to friends. My friend would ask me to stop jumping in between topics. :)

And a restauranteur. Knew I had forgotten something!

I thought I had grown up, but no, I still have the little kid in me who gets excited and bouts of insomnia when there's a trip ahead. It took days and (I wouldn't say painstaking, but tiring) hours of making the perfect itinerary. I'm thinking I should make a profession out of this, designing cutsomised itineraries.

Hang on, isn't that what I already do?

Forget being called the city of angels, Bangkok is definitely the city of shoes to me. Or bags? Or food? There should have been a word to club all of that. 2 lessons I've learned - Go with people who have marathon-eligible feet. And when you're loaded with cash so that you don't have to keep repeating every 5 minutes - Daaad, cash!

Maybe it has been quite a while since I've traveled abroad that I've forgotten how gentlemen still exist. People who talk softly, apologize if they accidentally come in your way, actually maintain queues or NOT litter the place. That's when I realized we have soo much more to go even after we supposedly become developed in 2020.

Day 1
After the flight being delayed because a whole group was offloaded owing to being drunk, we slept and slept. Talk about having the perfect start to a holiday! I missed home because we didn't have to check if every meat offered was Halal. Anyhow, off we went to MBK.

7 floors of unlimited shopping. Surprisingly, Dad had as much fun as we did with all the bargaining. The food court offers good variety in Halal food, and it even has a prayer hall. Mister Donuts have donuts that literally melt in your mouth.


Siam Nirmit show was one of the show stealers, the effects were outstaaanding. They don't allow photography/videos though. Pity :(

I really wanted to savour the taste of authentic middle eastern fare, so we headed to Soi 3 in Sukhumvit. Nasir-Al Masri was quite good, but they really need to do something about the giltzy decor (it was beyond glitzy).



Lesson Learned : Never choose a restaurant which happens to be at the cross section of the red light district when you're with parents!

And then it was back to bed. :)

The Obsession Series - Being almost Monica Geller

Dedicated to my sister, Lameez, who called me at the right time, at the right moment. And promised me she wouldn't read this post.

(Which was now :D)


I've thought long and hard to recall a day when I haven't complained about the state our country is in. Oh yeah, I lurve India and all that. But there are many bits and pieces, that I would love to snip out, if not change. And that's the cleanliness. Or rather, the lack of cleanliness.

Ideal Beginning to this story - 
Ever since I was a little girl, I was obsessed about keeping things clean.


Actual Beginning - 
I was such a little brat when it came to being organized. I was an expert at crumbling my clothes and hiding it in all corners of the house, behind the door etc. God alone knows how did I find them. My poor Dad (whom I swear should have been in the army) would bring out the cane to instil some discipline into me, but the cane did indeed make rare appearances.Only because me and my sister (the smart asses that we were) would break cane after cane and hide it behind the refrigerator. :)
Times did change and I can't exactly point out when did I start getting almost obsessed. So much to the point that I couldn't even throw a sweets wrapper outside the window. Yashi, if you're reading this, I changed you, honey :) I did manage to get all my close friends to stop littering the streets. And my brothers thankfully, did not join the clan of spitters/pee'ers on the streets.

This reminds me of an incident I had 3 weeks back. I was munching on Twix (I should probably dedicate an entire post towards my obsession with Twix which will guarantee you respite from insomnia) while waiting for the bus to come. When I put the wrapper into my bag, two guys commented l-o-u-d-l-y - Oh, Avalude oru shuddhi! (Commenting about cleanliness in mockery). If the bus hadn't come then, I would have given them a piece of my mind. And a large one at that.

The worst part - NRIs complain about how dirty the streets and how everything is so perfect back 'home'. Come on, you want a Singapore right here - start building one! We can sit back and complain about the Government not supplying dustbins. Between you and me, we so know that's not happening. So , be smart. And be clean :)

I'm reminded of one of the most beautiful Hadiths -

Narrated Abû Mâlik Al-Hârith bin Âsim Al-Ash’ari: Allah’s Messenger said, “Cleanliness is half of Faith; the utterance of Allah (Al-hamdu lillah – all praise belongs to Allah) fills the scales of good actions; the utterance of Allah (Glory be to Allah and all praise belongs to Allah) fills the space between the heavens and the earth, and Salât (prayer) is light; and charity is the proof of Faith; and endurance is a light, and the Qur’ân is a plea in your favour or against you. Every person begins the morning ready to strike a deal with his soul as a stake; he either ransoms it or puts it into perdition.” (Muslim)

I know that the people who should actually read this are not going to, but as they say, never stop trying!

Issued in Public Interest by The Girl who dreams too much :)

Monica Geller is a F.R.I.E.N.D.S character who is obsessed about keeping things clean.

Quality time, the way I like it.

Not a day goes by when I wish that there were more than 24 hours. 

I've had a good couple of days - Watched a movie that made me cry and read a book that also made me cry.
I rarely get the time to watch movies - and when I do, it's rarely based on filmy stuff. The Help was hands down, one of the best movies I've seen. It's centered around one of the many things we think we know, but far from the reality. Yeah, we've all learned about Racism in 9th grade. But the extent to which it actually was prevalent, had no clue! 5 minutes into the movie, you'll forget that it's actually just a movie.

Madhouse was an eye-opener. To what guys actually are. The book is a collection of memories revolving around the hostel life at IIT in the 80's. Now even though some of the stories were gruesomely disgusting for their sheer content, it did show how a bachelor's life is which my friends have been so desperately trying to hide from girls all their lives. One of the stories was so funny, I was rolling on the floor with tears in my eyes. For those who haven't heard me laugh, you would have to believe me when I say that I can bring the roof down! It's a pretty decent read, which took me back to my hostel days. We had a deadline of 06 30 pm to reach back at the hostel which was broken almost every other day. I was miserable the first few weeks, because my life would start at night when I stayed in an apartment. Don't get me wrong - I'm talking about restaurant and mall-hopping :)

As our luck would have it, our room was the nearest to the warden's. We had to tiptoe at night to fetch water or creep into the other rooms for a late night session - This was a rare occasion for me because I can't reject my bed's invitation later than 10 30 pm. The torch would be someone's Nokia 1100 to skillfully dodge rats. Yes, you read it right. Every night I'd hear the warden scream her lungs out for being the biggest pests she has ever had to deal with and that would equal to me learning more Kannada words. Of course, I've only retained two words in my memory now - Kannada + Gothilla (I don't know Kannada). Birthdays would mean getting drenched and yummilycious cakes. TV times were literally a pain in the ass because all girls would be hooked on to some Saas Bahu serial. Catfights were rare but when they did happen - oh boy, did we have fun or what! Constancy is another thing I learned - For two years, we had the same chapatis. The same chicken curry. And the same everything else. I can still identify the dish from the smell it gives out from a mile away.

Everyday, in our last year, we'd ask each other to imagine what the last day would be like with the room becoming empty. That thought did give me a bit of joy - because I'd see all corners of the room as spotless as it could get! Keeping a room as clean as you wish, when you stay with 4 others is a daunting, if not impossible task. But I knew it would mean the end of my independent life. And I still yearn for those days to this date.

The mixed baggage. Called Life

I do miss my doing nothing days when I did get the time to write posts almost everyday at work. This was work - thinking about what I would write. With each passing day, I'm just falling deeper in love with my bed. :)

As my mom watches a gruesome episode of Man Vs. Wild, I've finally found the time to write a new post. Yaay! So the past couple of weeks (has it been weeks or days) were pretty awesome. I traveled to 2 cities - one out of sheer compulsion. And the other, to do what I do best - Girls' day out. Well, more like weekend!

My father was going on a business trip to Mysore - a place that means palace to me. Here's the compulsion part of it - Mom dragged me along to what would be a pretty awesome trip. What did we do? Hang out at the zoo. Yes, people still do that. It's not that I resent animals. It's because I love them that the whole idea of caging them, especially birds drives me ballistic. Oooh yeah, we did indulge in food experiments. :)

Girls' weekend out = Cochin = Shopping + Eating = Lifetime Memory.
I think this trip changed what my perception of Cochin was. Atleast to an extent. I'm so used to to the Calicut hospitality that I pretty much expect the rest of the Keralites to exhibit the same. And that is, most often, completely the opposite. This time around, the rickshaw drivers were absolute gems when it came to taking us around. Only did we realize later that they were big fat liars as well. We shopped till we literally dropped.

Pointers you should keep in mind when you travel to these places :

• Never speak Hindi in Cochin or Malayalam in Mysore. The auto drivers will definitely take you on a ride. A very costly ride.
• Check out the deadly pastries in Loyal Food World, Mysore and the desserts at Cocoa Tree, Cochin. To di-ee for!
• The Lebanese Shawarma at Oberon, Cochin. As close as you can get to the real stuff in Mallu land.
• NBC's Chicken Biryani. Now this is as close as you can get to my mom's biryani!
• Always pack your camera before you pack your undergarments. You can always buy new clothes, but you gotta be filthy rich to buy a new cam. 

Until the next time, folks!